SteriRob – Sensor system for the Identification and Handling of sterile surgical instruments

The processing and deployment of sterile surgical instruments is of critical importance for the feasibility and security of surgical operations. Lack of personnel in combination with the need to cut costs result in an increased error rate in the sterilization process. Acting on the initiative of hospitals, an interdisciplinary consortium consisting of industry and research institutes has been formed to address this issue. Goals of the project include development of a handling-concept for individual instruments as well as for trays, a “localization and identification”-concept. By combining data from various sensors, including data transmitted from RFID tags located on the instruments, a precise determination if the instrument location is generated to support the instrument handling.